Hair products such as chemicals used for hair permanents are normally sold in small quantities which the user will employ for a single hair permanent. Typically, the solutions used in creating a hair permanent include an acid or alkaline solution and a neutralizer. These chemicals are sensitive to various factors such as atmospheric conditions, oxygen, light, etc. so that once a container has been opened, it can normally not be used, as far as any remaining solution is concerned, at a future date.
There are various types of applications using permanent hair solutions such as beauty salons or home usage. Even in the case of beauty salons, individual small quantities of the chemicals must be used each time for the above reasons.
The packaging costs involved in preparing, shipping and using relatively minor quantities of permanent hair solutions adds significantly to the cost of such components or treatments. This is due to the extra packaging required, the extra shipping costs, etc.
In addition, under today's environmental standards, where it is desirable to avoid usage of excess packaging material, a further problem is encountered in that many of the chemicals for use in permanent hair treatments must be stored and shipped in non-breakable plastic containers.
It would be desirable if a method and apparatus were developed which significantly reduced the amount of packaging required for individual hair treatment portions without the attendant problems of having the spoilage of the products once they are opened or conversely, being able to retain excess products for future use. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide such a method and apparatus.
A further object of the present invention, is to provide an apparatus and method which permits the dispensing of desired amounts of hair products for individual treatment but at the same time, protecting the unused contents of the hair products for future use.
In yet another object of the present invention, there is provided a container adapted to dispense at least two different liquid hair products comprising: a container body having an interior chamber for separately retaining at least two separate bulk source flowable liquid hair products; at least two flexible air impermeable bulk source bags for retaining a liquid hair product; the bags having dispensing means for dispensing a liquid hair product on demand and being mounted within the body with the body housing the bags; the body having means for permitting the dispensing means of the bags to project externally from the body of the container; the means for permitting the dispensing being spaced apart in the container whereby the liquid hair products may be separately dispensed on demand in a predetermined quantity; and means for partitioning the body into two separate interior chambers with one of the air impermeable bags being mounted in each of the interior chambers.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus in which the components are recyclable and reusable.
In greater detail, the container includes a container body having pairs of opposed side and front and rear walls and top and bottom walls, the top wall being hingedly connected to the container to permit access to the interior chamber.
Further, the container may include perforated aperture outlines in one of the front and rear walls. The perforated aperture outlines being adapted to be removed to permit access to the means for permitting dispensing of the contents of each of the bags.
It is another particularly preferred feature that the container additionally includes separate retaining means interiorly of the container body and accessible by the hinged top wall of the container body; the retaining means being adapted to retain hair accessories. In this regard, two separate retaining means may be provided which can be separated interiorly by the means for partitioning the container body.
According to another preferred feature of the present invention, the container body may also include means for mounting the bags interiorly of the container body and within each interior chamber. The means for mounting the bags, in a particularly preferred form, can be angularly positioned within in each interior chamber whereby liquid in each of the bags tends to flow downwardly within the bags to exhaust almost all of the contents.
In a preferred form, the bulk source bags can be comprised of thermoplastic material and may also include an aluminum laminate.
In a further preferred form of the present invention, the dispensing means for dispensing the liquid hair product from the bulk source bags are integral with the bulk source bags. It is a further particularly preferred feature that the dispensing means are manually actuatable in the form of a valve or the like.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention there is provided a method of dispensing small amounts of liquid hair products from a bulk source comprising the steps of: providing at least first and second bulk sources of flowable first and second hair products individually packaged; providing openable and closable dispensing means for each of the bulk sources; mounting the bulk sources within a unitary container holding each of the bulk sources; and dispensing predetermined and desired amounts individually from each of the bulk source.
In a particularly preferred feature of the method of the present invention, the individual bulk source packages are comprised of thermoplastic material which may be hermetically sealed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a container blank for forming a container adapted to dispense separate liquid hair products comprising: a scored and creased blank having a first main rectangularly shaped body panel having a lower margin and a pair of spaced apart parallel sides, and a top margin, one of the parallel sides having a free edge; a first extension panel having a pair of free side edges, a free bottom edge, and a top margin, the latter being foldably connected to the lower margin of the first main body panel; a second extension panel having spaced apart free side edges and upper and lower margins, the second extension panel being foldably connected along its lower margin to the top margin of the first main body panel; a third extension panel having a pair of spaced apart side margins and top and bottom margins, the third extension panel being foldably connected along its bottom margin to the top margin of the second extension panel; a pair of side extensions associated with the spaced apart parallel side margins of the third extension panel, each of the side extensions having free top and lateral sides; a fourth extension panel having a pair of free side edges and a free top edge, the fourth extension panel having a bottom margin foldably connecting it to the top margin of the third extension panel. The container blank also includes a first rectangularly shaped side panel having a pair of spaced apart parallel side margins and upper and lower margins, a lower extension panel having a pair of spaced apart free side edges and a free lower bottom edge, and a top margin foldably connecting the lower extension panel to the lower margin of the first rectangularly shaped side panel, one of the spaced apart side margins of the first side panel foldably connecting the side panel to the first main body panel, the first rectangularly shaped side panel having an upper extension panel having a pair of spaced apart free side edges and a free top edge, the upper extension panel having a lower margin foldably connecting it to the first rectangularly shaped side panel. There is also included a second main rectangularly shaped body panel having a pair of spaced apart parallel side margins, a top margin and a bottom margin, one of the side margins being foldably connected to the other of the side margins of the first side panel, the second body panel having a lower extension panel associated therewith, the lower extension panel having a pair of free side edges and a free bottom edge and a top margin foldably connecting the extension panel to the lower margin of the second body panel, a first upper extension panel associated with the second body panel having a pair of spaced apart side margins and an upper margin and a lower margin, the lower margin of the first upper extension panel being foldably connected to the upper margin of the second main body panel, and a second upper extension panel having a pair of free side edges and a top edge and a lower margin foldably connecting the second upper extension panel to top margin of the first extension panel. Further, the container blank includes a second rectangularly shaped side panel having a pair of spaced apart parallel side margins, a free top edge, and a lower bottom margin, one of the side margins of the second side panel foldably connecting the second side panel to the second main body panel, the second side panel having a lower extension panel having a pair of spaced apart free side edges and a free lower edge and a top margin foldably connecting the lower extension panel of the second side panel to the lower margin thereof. A partitioning and reinforcing extension is provided, the extension having a first rectangularly shaped reinforcing panel having free top and bottom edges and a pair of spaced apart parallel side margins, one of the side margins foldably connecting the first reinforcing panel to the other of the side margins of the second side panel. The partitioning and reinforcing extension further including a rectangularly shaped partitioning panel having a free lower edge, a pair of spaced apart parallel side margins, one of which foldably connects the partitioning panel to the other of the side margins of the first rectangularly shaped reinforcing panel. Still further, the partitioning and reinforcing extension includes a second reinforcing panel having spaced apart top and bottom free edges, a free side edge and an opposed side margin foldably connecting the second reinforcing panel to the other of the side margins of the partitioning panel.
The present invention utilizes a container which is adapted to retain at least two bulk volume containers or bags which retain the hair products out of contact with atmospheric conditions and at the same time, inhibits or prohibits the chemicals from coming in contact with atmospheric air.
To this end, the bulk chemicals are stored and retained in a flexible, collapsible bag construction of suitable non-reactive material, each bag being provided with dispensing means for permitting dispensing of predetermined quantities of hair chemicals or products on demand. Such bags may be, for example, bags formed of flexible polymeric materials which have a dispensing means located on one face of the bag and which are in contact with the interior contents of the bag with the dispensing means being of an open/closable type.
Typically, the bags may be made of suitable thermoplastic materials such as the various polyolefins or laminates of such materials with one or more other substances such as metal, e.g. aluminum foil. Such bags are known in the art of thermoplastic bags and appropriate materials may be selected by those skilled in the art for different types of hair chemical products.
The container adapted to retain the two or more bulk source bags is preferably of a self-supporting nature, partitioned into separate compartments with each compartment adapted to retain an individual bag of bulk chemical. To this end, the container for retaining the bulk bags will have at least two apertures therein, each aperture being adapted to permit a user to access the dispensing means of the bulk bags contained within the container.
The container blank of the present invention is preferably constructed of suitable board material, such as corrugated board. Preferably, the corrugated board is provided with an outer surface which may be plastic coated. In place of board material, plastic material may also be utilized if desired.
The system of the present invention is particularly adapted to dispense hair components such as hair permanent wave solution and neutralizing solutions, and as well, other hair chemicals used for example in professional salon. Typically, such other solutions may be bleaching agents, colouring agents, chemicals for deep conditioning.
Typically, the system of the present invention will use bulk dispensing for two or more component solutions so that a container may contain two or more bulk chemicals. It is important in using the bags of the present invention that they be of a type, together with the type of dispensing nozzle or valve, that air is excluded from entering into the bags upon dispensing of the chemicals. To this end, preferably, the valves are of the type known in the art which dispense wine from flexible bags.
In preferred embodiments, preferably the dispensing valve for the bulk container is located near the bottom of the bag and in combination with the internal riser platform used in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the liquid chemicals in the bags will drain to the bottom of the bags so that substantially all of the chemicals may be dispensed as desired from the bags.
Having thus generally described the present invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings illustrating preferred embodiments: